2023 the year we learn to listen to life

Week 28--in which we ponder the where and the how of a magical creative life

Friends, soul writers, mystics, witches, and lovers of prayer,

When we think about creativity, we invariably get it all wrong. We look at creative people—be they writers, artists, musicians—and think they’re special. Gifted. Talented in ways we’ll never be. That’s not true. Creatives are just like us. In fact, they are us.

Everyone is a creative. Everyone is, as John O’Donohue said in Beauty, “created to create.”

Or as Rick Rubin, author of the current bestseller, The Creative Act: A Way of Being says:

“Creativity is not a rare ability. It is not difficult to access. Creativity is a fundamental aspect of being human. It’s our birthright. And it’s for all of us.”

He goes on to remind us that creativity is not just about making art.

“To create is to bring something into existence that wasn’t there before. It could be a conversation, the solution to a problem, a note to a friend, a rearrangement in a room, a new route home to avoid a traffic jam.”

But that leaves us asking where. Where did that conversation come from? Where was the solution before you found it? Where were the words in that soothing note? Where was the design for the living room?

When you get an AHA, a new idea, a surprising insight… When you wake with the answer to a question that has bugged you for weeks... Or suddenly get an idea you never had before...

Where were those ideas before they came to you?

This was brought home to me when I told my editor in 2014 that I wasn’t going to finish Soul Vows in time. I felt terrible. Don’t writers always meet their deadlines? There I was, working with this editor for the first time, having to admit I needed at least two more weeks. I braced for scolding, for judgement. But my publisher didn’t scold and she didn’t judge. She said something that has stayed with me ever since:

“Take all the time you need. Write the book that wants to be written.”

I was stunned by what I thought was kindness, sympathy for an over-stressed author. It was only when I took her words into deep soul writing that I realized there was much more going on here then the relaxation of a deadline.

No. The important phrase is: the book that wants to be written.

That means the book already exists. Soul Vows already knows its completed form, content, and timing. That book is alive and in conversation with me. And if that’s true, then who exactly is writing Soul Vows? Is Soul Vows writing Soul Vows? And if so, what’s my part? Where do I fit into this magical arrival of a book that wants to be written, published, and read?

There is no end to where you can go with “write the book that wants to be written.” Or the newsletter that wants to be written. I am doing this right now. I am writing the newsletter that wants to be written.

I know it wants to be written because it dictated its major points in the dark two nights ago. I woke, read my notes on the yellow pad that is always beside me when I sleep, and followed my instructions.

My instructions are to ponder two questions with you: Where is the thing that wants to be created? How can we access it?

Let’s start with where.

I stumbled upon the where when I stumbled upon deep soul writing 26 years ago. You know the story from the opening chapter of Writing Down Your Soul. Here’s the Cliff Notes. My dying marriage had imploded into a raging river of violence and fear that was carrying away my life. My dog brought me The Artist’s Way. I read one paragraph about a “source of wisdom within,” picked up a pen and screamed for help. After several days of intense screaming on the page, I was shocked to see that help was flowing onto the page in front of me. Real help. Guidance I could trust. Comfort I could feel.

I followed that guidance and built a whole new life that led to a contract in 2007 for Writing Down Your Soul. In all that time, I never understood why deep soul writing was so wildly effective, so magical. So off I went to see if science could explain the magic.

And I found it.

I found psychology that proves writing can change your life and neurobiology that explains what happens in your body when you tell your story and release your trauma.

I sensed there was one more door to open. I picked up a pen and wrote:

“Thank you for the psychology. Thank you for the neurobiology. There’s something else. I don’t know what it is, but You do. Thank You in advance for the last bit. Oh, and don’t forget we’re working under deadline here!”

Within days I was interviewing Robert and Michelle Colt who coach executives and actors to change their brains for peak performance. I asked about journaling and Michelle said “Writing is the most effective spiritual practice.” Talk about a great quote for my book!

I thought they might know the secret so I said,

"What does it mean when you’re writing so fast that the pen and the page become one and you couldn’t lift the pen if you wanted and something comes through that you know did not come from you?”

Robert paused a long time before he said:

“I do not know how you’ve done it, Janet, but you’ve trained yourself to enter mystical theta.”

Mystical theta! Until that moment I didn’t know what theta was, never mind mystical theta. I’ve been exploring theta and training myself to drop into mystical theta ever since.

What is mystical theta?

You probably know that our fastest brain waves are called Beta. What you might not know is that Beta is the brain wave of worry, stress, anxiety, performance. In other words, it’s the brainwave of our modern world and of patriarchy itself. You cannot create or even take a deep breath in Beta.

As your brain waves slow down, you move through layers of Alpha. As you drop into deeper and deeper Alpha you can do powerful work often losing track of time. You can even access the collective unconscious.

But Theta is different. It’s a narrow band from 4-7hz. It is the only brainwave state in which you have access to fertile new ideas, breakthrough thinking, radical creativity, startling inventions, and mystical encounters across time and space.

Consider Edison. He was a master at dropping into theta in short power naps. For those few precious moments, he would step through the door of consciousness and receive idea after idea to test.

I’ve now spent 16 years training myself to drop into mystical theta around the clock. Deep soul writing in the morning, nightfall theta as I fall asleep, theta in the magic hour of the Schumann waves, morning theta in the liminal space before consciousness, staring at the wall theta...

I’ve discovered dozens of ways to cross the threshold between worlds.

Everything I create first makes itself known in theta. Often the first hint arrives in the magic hour around 4am followed by snippets of words and images in morning theta. I take everything I heard or saw in the night into deep soul writing where I receive a bigger picture plus guidance on how to bring it to life.

That’s how I received everything for The Witch Sequence including the 7-circuit labyrinth walk and all the delicious imagery. There has never been anything like The Witch Sequence with its 7 prayer intensives to awaken our 7 original sacramental gifts.

So, if nothing like The Witch Sequence already exists, where did this rich system come from? Where was it before it came to me asking to be brought to life?

Well, after 26 years of exploration, I can say creative ideas come from multiple places. Go to the page on my site (link below) for the intensive for further description.

Ideas can flow to you from:

Akashic Record
Morphic Field
Imaginal Realm
Deep Memory of the land and body
Mystic Family or Group Soul
Dream Fields
Mythic Memory
Land of the Dead

There is no end to where creative intelligence comes from.

Ervin Laszlo said it best in Science and the Akashic Field:

“[W]hen the censorship of the waking consciousness is not operative, information can reach the mind from almost any part or aspect of the universe.”

So the short answer to the Where question is: almost any part or aspect of the universe. The key is to step out from under the censorship of waking consciousness.

Which brings us to How.

How is exactly what we’re going to explore in the intensive.

After 26 years of playing in the fields of theta, I’d love to share five profound ways with you that are particularly delicious and evocative.

Read the full description on the intensive page:

1. Deep Soul Writing--I'll share my process and help you create your own
2. Theta Night and Day
3. Prayer—the magic spell that drops you into theta
4. Creativity that comes rushing through in theta
5. The Imaginal Realm

I am preparing a rich bibliography for you on all five. One of my newest delights is The Creative Act: A Way of Being. Rick Rubin understands, as the subtitle says, that creativity is not a method, not a talent, not reserved for the special; it is a way of living, a way of opening the door and allowing what wants to be created to take us by the hand. He writes:

“With training, we can improve our interface with Source and radically expand the vessel’s ability to receive.”

“Awareness needs constant refreshing… Until one day, you notice that you are always in the practice of awareness, at all times, in all places, living your life in a constant openness to receiving.”

This is how I walk. And how I invite you to walk.

Because this is how our ancestors walked.

Our sacred ancestors, the original witches, the revered witches, knew the invisible was alive and available. They knew how to step out of stress and into the magical, the sacred, the holy to receive the information, guidance, comfort, and grace they and the community needed.

A week ago in the night, this creature came to me, showed me her form and whispered her name: Mystica.

She said, “I am the Oracle of the Threshold.”

Just look at her for a moment.

Mystica is medicine. Visual medicine. Just looking at her is a profound teaching on the mystical theta brain wave state. Just looking at her, you can begin to feel in your body how gorgeous it feels to step out from under the conditioning of our culture and into the world where magic awaits and anything is possible.

Follow her. Follow Mystica to:

The A.R.T. of Becoming a Witch

2nd Mystica Inner-Versity intensive
2nd Original Spiritual Gift
2nd walk on The Witch Sequence labyrinth

How to Awaken, Remember, and Trust
Your Innate Ability to Cross the Threshold Between Worlds

to the joy of crossing the threshold between worlds and discovering what wants to be brought to life

Janet

website: janetconner.com

facebook: janet conner prayer artist

YouTube: Janet Conner